Friday, September 25, 2009

Poster Trends: Attack of the Floating Heads (part III)

Looking at all these ugly posters is wearing me down. Seriously, look at these:

I mean, I've seen posters like this for as long as I can remember, but until now, scrolling through them one after another, does it really hit home just how little innovation and creativity there is in this field. Or rather, I should say, how little it is encouraged. I know there have to be some designers out there who come up with some really interesting designs, but get shot down when they present it because the studios want the actors to be more prevalent.

Take that Point Break poster, for instance. The image of those three robbers, standing on the rocks in their presidents masks with the waves breaking behind them, is a very cool image by itself. It looks fun and dangerous at the same time. But when you shrink that and have these giant heads plastered above them, staring at you, the impact of the figures is, literally, whittled down to almost nothing.

I can just imagine it:

"Yeah... it's a cool picture, but where are the stars? Why don't you go ahead and put Patrick and Keanu's heads right... HERE."

It's frustrating to think about. Because aside from being as aesthetically inept as they are, most Floating Head designs do a terrible a job of actually expressing what the movie is about, or what it feels like. Heads, everywhere, with looks of concern, of pensiveness, a smirk here and there... but what the hell is the movie like?